Hey guys,Got a new PC on the way, but am gathering plenty of opinions and thoughts for the setup before I buy. Here's the specs, please note the prices are in Australian dollars.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/180432.gif

Two things I would recommend here. 1) Get the Q6600 2) Get 4 gig of Ramps. This post should be in the hardware forum.

What operating system are you going to use?If you are intending to use Windows XP, then you should go for 2mb of RAM. Unless you intend to run a 64-bit OS (Like Vista 64) 4 MB of RAM is overkill (as a 32-bit OS cannot address that much RAM.)I have read thread after thread of complaints about the performance of the GeForce 8800GT with respect to FSX and DX10. (I use the GeForce 7950).

You should be fine Joe. A nice setup. You are not mentioning OS and PS. With that setup, Windows XP will be fine and a 600watt+ ps will provide enough energy.Pierre

Why a Quad-Core? Benchmarks and reports from users have revealed that a Quad doesn't show any improvements over a Dual-Core - at least for FSX.Since the E6850 has a higher clockspeed than the Q6600, the E6850 would presumably perform better with FSX.Pat

Looks good to me. The only money saver I would suggest is to skip the X-Fi sound card as, from personal experience, onboard sound on a motherboard like the one you are getting is just as good sound and performance-impacting wise as an addon sound card.Gary

Yep, go for more memory if you can. Everything else looks pretty good. You could go with aftermarket cooling on that 8800 if you want to overclock it later.

>Why a Quad-Core? Benchmarks and reports from users have>revealed that a Quad doesn't show any improvements over a>Dual-Core - at least for FSX.>>Since the E6850 has a higher clockspeed than the Q6600, the>E6850 would presumably perform better with FSX.>It will.But the thinking behind the quad is that, if he plans to keep the setup for more than 1.5 years, the quad will pay off with more apps (such as FS).True enough, right now, overclocking a dual gives the absolute fastest experience, but only by a few percentage points...On the other hand if he's going to upgrade again in 1 to 1.5 years then sure, go dualie right now.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

>>I have read thread after thread of complaints about the>performance of the GeForce 8800GT with respect to FSX and>DX10. (I use the GeForce 7950).You have? I have missed these! Were they here at AVSIM? I am interested because 8800GT is on my short-list of new vidcards...RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

Thanks a lot for all the replies guys!I plan on running XP Pro, I may run Vista and DX10 in the future, but for now I'm sticking to XP.In regards to the 8800GT, I've seen about a dozen people recommend it - I haven't heard of any problems with it.Chances are I will upgrade in a couple years, and plus the performance tests over at tomshardware.com showed the E6850 out perform the Q6600 in every test, and seeing as FSX needs a fast CPU more than anything, I'm pretty happy with my choice - unless anyone can talk me out of it!Thanks again guys.